help w/ assumption / strengthen / weaken

[Em.P.]

Thank you so much for creating powescore! It has been tremendously helpful. I cannot figure out for the life of me how or what it is about assumption / strengthen and weaken questions that I do not get.

1. I am consistently getting assumption/ strengthen / weaken questions wrong, if you could please help me figure out what it is that I need to practice or how to go about these questions. Background info: I am killing it in LG! (thanks to you) However I know I can do better in LR and RC. From my analytics I can see that it is the above group of questions that I am consistently getting wrong… shortly behind it is the must be true… If you could please help me figure out what it is that I am doing wrong and where I should be focusing on.

2. I recently registered for my first lsat (nov.) and I clicked the box that indicated I have no private quiet place to take the test. Does that mean that LSAC is going to reach out to help me coordinate that or is it everyman for themselves and my family will have to suffer without a bathroom since I will need to lock myself in there to take the test.

Please let me know
Thanks!

[nowornever]

In terms of your second question, I checked the same box for the August test and a few weeks ago they emailed me indicating that they would cover the cost of a hotel room (provided it would be quiet and have a stable internet connection) for me to take the test. Essentially, the policy was book the hotel, and send them the receipt. There were more details than that, but I can't remember what they were exactly. Regardless, I was impressed with their response.
I ended up cancelling my registration, so can't comment beyond that.

[Jeremy Press]

Hi Em,

Regarding your second question, nowornever's post is very helpful--if you want to be proactive, reach out to LSAC by email or phone to confirm that they'll reimburse you for a hotel room that is quiet and has internet access.

On your first question, the fundamentals are key. Here are a few pointers for those question types:

1. Assumption questions: always make sure you've appropriately dissected the parts of the argument in the stimulus. What is the conclusion? What are the premises for that conclusion? If there's some obvious assumption tying those pieces together, try to identify it before diving in on the answers. Watch out for two specific issues: (1) gaps in the argument, especially between premises and conclusion (does the conclusion include some new concept or information that the premises didn't refer to? If so, find an answer that ties that "new element" to the premises); and (2) flaws in the argument (the correct answer might be getting rid of one of these flaws by "assuming it away," i.e. assuming it's not true). Doing the work upfront to understand the stimulus will pay off huge on the back end with sorting through answer choices. Lastly, remember that the answer you're looking for is something that is "necessary" for the argument, so you can always use the Assumption Negation Technique to decide whether an answer is truly necessary or not. If you're not using the Assumption Negation Technique, you need to practice it on a lot of questions, on multiple (right AND wrong) answers, to understand how to apply it correctly.

2. Strengthen/Weaken questions: the same general advice on dealing with the stimulus applies as for assumption questions (ID the premises/conclusion, and look for flaws or weaknesses in the argument BEFORE you search through answer choices), but remember a couple of extra things. Many answer choices will be irrelevant because they're not addressing the specifics of the conclusion. So make sure you understand EXACTLY what the conclusion is covering (and what it's not covering) before you dive into the answers. To do this best, focus on the conclusion's scope: what specific subject is it addressing? Be especially attentive to Causal Reasoning in these questions. Causal Reasoning is utilized so frequently in Strengthen/Weaken questions that if you're not seeing it at all (or only rarely), you're probably missing a big piece of the puzzle. When you spot it, make sure you know your "5 ways to Weaken (or Strengthen) a Causal conclusion." I use them multiple times on EVERY test with Strengthen/Weaken questions.

I hope this helps!

[Em.P.]

Thanks you, very helpful!